Marinedi, a specialist marina company, is looking to raise €50 million of third party equity in order to grow an international portfolio of marinas.
The firm, which was founded in 2009, has appointed London-based Matrix Corporate Capital to find fresh capital as it looks to accelerate plans to acquire up to €600 million of marinas. That equates to around 9,000 berths at an average of 450 berths per marina.
According to the firm’s marketing material, Marinedi is in the process of assembling a portfolio of around 30 marinas. Of these, two are currently operational, two are under development and a further two are still seeking the appropriate development permissions. It has a pipeline of 25 other assets.
The company is targeting marinas in the Mediterranean and is focussed mainly on Italy, Iberia, the Balkan states, Turkey, Greece and North Africa. Further investments could be made in the Caribbean to extend the assets’ operating capabilities. Marinedi is hoping that by repositioning, developing and improving the management of the assets it can deliver returns in excess of 20 percent for its equity providers.
Marinas are not yet an institutional asset class in real estate, but Marinedi thinks it has first mover advantage to consolidate the sector. It also points to a simple supply, demand imbalance with there being more boats than berths as a reason for strong growth, as well as new wealth in Russia and China adding to the existing super yacht and cruising sector. In general, supply is restricted because of a fragmented and under-developed market and high barriers to entry.
The marketing material also said existing marinas tended to be of low quality, inefficiently managed and were poorly configured, limiting their ability to compete with well developed marinas in prime locations.
Marinas have a diverse source of income, from long term concessions to sales of berths, development, rental of real estate and service provision. Sales of berths provide a way to return capital, thereby boosting returns.
The company envisages that exits for an investor in the company could come in the form of an initial public offering, the launch of a private fund, sale to an infrastructure investor, marine industry operator or real estate company.
Marinedi is led by a mixture of marina, real estate and investment specialists and is run by Renato Marconi, who a former managing director of Italia Navigando, the predominantly Italian state owned marina network with more than 20 marinas.
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